On Aunt Mildred's Porch

That Dress I Couldn't Get On Or Off

2025-06-26T21:09:00.001-04:00

Summer.

It's truly the season I live for. I crave the longer hours of daylight, not freezing my tail off every time I step outside and a lighter workload than during the school year.

And with summer comes outdoor line dancing.

I am not an avid line dancer, but I enjoy it and go when the location is right and when the timing is right. In the summer, there are two outdoor line dancing nights that I try to go to because it's so popular, any indoor place can't keep up with the body heat when everyone gets going. I prefer to do it outside for a bunch of reasons.

I wouldn't say I made this dress just for line dancing but I've been looking at people with cute dresses like this that twirl and swish when they're dancing, so I thought this would be fun. Details about the dress are at the very end.

This summer, Wednesday nights are line dancing nights, but Wednesday nights are also when I ride with someone at the barn and then we close. We are usually all closed up by 6pm and the line dancing starts at 6pm, so I figure I can get there a little late and it doesn't matter. It's not like I'm performing, so there's no exact time I have to be there. I'll be going from the barn, but I get so sweaty dancing that as long as I am marginally clean, no one will know the difference, right?

Putting a lot of thought into everything I should bring with me so I can sort of get cleaned up after we ride and wear whatever I'm wearing to dance, I gathered this dress, my boots, a face cloth, two hand towels and some sneakers just in case I can't get my boots on- side note, I had a Fletcher-stepping-on-my-toe incident the first night of Wednesday night outdoor line dancing and I couldn't go. 3 weeks later, my toe is better but I forgot to check and see if my foot would actually go into my boot. If there was too much pressure on my toe, I'd just wear my cute sneakers.

Did I mention that on this particular Wednesday, we were in day 2 of a very rare heat wave that had the "feels like" temperature close to 100? The real temperature hit 90. We don't get a lot of outrageously hot days where I live, so this was something. The first day was bad but somehow, day 2 was even worse. I think it's because we were led to believe it would be slightly cooler when in fact, the day started hot stayed that way.

I thought we should just do a trail ride, maybe like 30 minutes of not stressful riding. We'd be in the woods so it would be slightly cooler and we'd just be walking. I brought my riding bag, my sneakers (no need to put the boots on in the barn when I could just wait until I got to the venue and put them on then) and my bag that had the dress and my cleaning supplies, all in one trip. Sometimes, I end up going to the car 50 times and slowing everything down but I was on top of everything this time. Wed be done by 6 and I'd be out the door soon after.

We did most of the chores before we rode so when we came back, we'd just hose the two horses down, put them in and then get everyone else. We've been doing this for years and we're a well oiled Wednesday night closing machine.

Though the woods were slightly cooler, let's not fool ourselves. It was still illegally hot for 5pm. We did our 30 minutes and hosed both horses down before bringing everyone else in. We were soaked but I was secure in the knowledge that I had a facecloth to wash myself in the bathroom and towels to dry off so I could get a little refreshed before dancing my butt off.

We brought everyone in, did all of the normal closing routines including turning on the fans that were just recently reinstalled and I headed to the bathroom to de-stink myself. I took everything off and lathered up. It felt so good to wash everything off. I got out my first hand towel and dried and dried and dried, especially my arms and torso because I thought I might have a little trouble getting the dress on because I was still pretty warm.

Notice the back of the dress has that stretchy part. If you're reading this because you're curious about the sewing part of this, instead of shirring that part, I made channels and ran the elastic through. The stretchy part lets you in and out of the dress without needing a zipper. And the laced part in the front lets you pull it in a little once it's on.

I ran that towel over myself one more time because I thought I was still feeling kind of damp.

This fabric is a rayon crepe which is sort of slippery but also sort of polyester feeling. It has a lovely drape but also feels like it could really make me sweat. The top is lined with muslin because a lining is necessary to make this pattern. The fabric itself has a slight stretch and the tiers are loose enough so they don't cling to the body. It felt cool when I picked it up, so I was pretty sure it would slide right on and I'd be out the door to my air conditioned car that maybe would help calm my hair down a little on the ride there.

I bunched up the dress to slide it over my arms and head. I got it mid should blade and it got stuck. It wasn't going any further. I tried tugging a little on the skirt tiers but it felt like they were going to rip. So, I slid it back off. Maybe I just needed to use the second hand towel and dry myself a little more. While I was having this conversation with myself, I started to wish I had looked to see if the one fan that hadn't been mounted all week was still just sitting out. I should have brough that into the bathroom with me and it would have dried me RIGHT off!

Damn.

I ran the dry towel over me and tried again. Same thing. Maybe I need to loosen the lacing. I didn't think it was tight but maybe it was hanging things up. Off it went and I loosened the lacing. No difference. I could feel myself getting warm with all of this on and off business. I wondered if it would be too weird to ask my riding buddy to help me. Could she just maybe gently pull the skirt as I raised my arms over my head? I thought maybe the problem was that when I was trying to pull it all the way down, my shoulder blades were spreading and that waistband was getting stuck and holding everything up. So much for that stretchy panel at the back!

I decided it was too weird to ask for help. Then I thought maybe I should ask her to see if the fan was there but then I would have to admit I was having trouble and I knew she would have tried to help and I wasn't ready for that.

At this point, all of my riding clothes were on the floor and I didn't have anything I could just casually throw on to walk out there. Surely I can get this dress on, I just need to calm down and cool off.

She walked by the door and said she was leaving unless I needed anything else and I was like "oh no, I'm all set, see you later!" with my arms over my head, my dress still stuck at my shoulder blades, feeling like I was never going to get this thing on.

Once she left, I toyed with the idea of just walking out the door with nothing by my underwear on, to see if that fan was there. Who would see me? Knowing my luck, ANYONE would just randomly show up at that moment, so I couldn't do that. I left the dress stuck at my shoulders, slid my sneakers on and peered out the door. I had to take 3 steps to see if the fan was somewhere in the aisle but it wasn't.

It would have felt SO GOOD to sit in front of that fan for a minute.

By now, at least 15 minutes had passed. I was irritated that now I was later than I wanted to be and frustrated that I couldn't get this stupid dress on. I was definitely sweating again and both towels were damp.

I went back into the bathroom to try again. At least I made it back to the bathroom and no one saw me. I took off the dress and thought maybe I could step into it. Nope, the waistband has zero stretch and wouldn't go over my hips when I stepped into it.

Then I noticed the refrigerator. In my first moment of madness, I actually opened it and thought I could wave cool air onto myself. I could not.

Well, I decided, this is never going to happen. And I certainly am not going there in my riding clothes.

Maybe I can put my riding stuff back on, crank up the AC in the car and pull over on the way there when I've cooled down enough.

This seemed like a reasonable idea. Except for putting my riding clothes back on. They were so soaked with sweat and had now been on the floor for all of this, me standing on them to keep my feet clean.

By now I might have been delirious, so my next idea was maybe I can leave the dress stuck where it is, tie my shirt around my waist so it hangs down and covers my butt. No, that would leave my front exposed and I just know the second I walk out the door, someone will show up.

There are not many people who just show up at the barn, but in my brain, a whole busload of people were going to be on the other side of that bathroom door.

In my final moment of insanity, I thought I could leave the dress half on, tie my shirt around my waist to cover my butt and tuck the two hand towels where the sleeves tied around my waist to cover my front. Again, that busload of people might think that was weird, so I decided not to do that either. I looked at my pants for a second wondering if maybe I could somehow drape them.

Not sure why I was so obsessed with draping.

Eventually, I put my disgusting shirt and pants back on, slipped my sneakers on because imagining my barn boots on my feet at that point was too much, grabbed all of my stuff and went to the car.

I cranked the AC, took off my pants (what are the chances I'll get pulled over and have to get out to do a sobriety check?) sat perched forward so I didn't get my seats extra sweaty and drove, hoping all of that air was going to do something.

About 10 minutes in, I was feeling significantly drier and actually cold.

I went to pull into a parking lot where I was sure I could quickly take off my shirt and throw the dress on and it would slide right down. And I realized it's a church parking lot and they must have had evening services because there were cars everywhere. Don't need to be flashing the congregation.

I drove a little further to another parking lot, hoped the tint of my windows was enough to keep me hidden, threw off that sweaty shirt and prepared for the dress to slide right down. AND IT DID!

Once I arrived, I still had to fiddle with it to get the skirt all the way down and make sure it wasn't stuck up when I got out of the car, but that was a breeze.

The boots were fine, the dress was plenty twirly but we didn't get any good pictures of the twirl factor.

If you remember that I originally hoped the AC was going to do something for my hair, you can see it did not. I forgot a clip and ended up with it hanging down all night which added to the sweatfest while we danced.

If you assumed this was the end of the adventure in this dress, you must not have read the title.

After a fun night of dancing and sweating even more, it was still 83 degrees after dark on the ride home. I could not WAIT to get this dress off and take a shower.

It's possible I have reached an age where I am tired of fighting to get sweaty sports bras off because they always get stuck on my shoulders. I am flexible but when I'm tired and wet, flexibility doesn't help and I just get furious.

Was I wearing a sports bra under this? Why am I talking about them all of a sudden? Because just like being trapped in a sweaty sports bra, I was now trapped in this sweaty dress.

In the reverse of the evening's events, I now couldn't get this dress off. I'd slide everything up and just as I'd get a grip to pull it that final step over my head, I'd get stuck and couldn't get it to move. Again, I wanted to pull on the skirt but I knew that would just rip everything.

I loosened the lacing but it did nothing.

Would you believe I even thought if I bent over, maybe gravity would help?

It did not.

For a half hour, I'd try and fail and get mad and wait, over and over. Was it because I was hot and sweaty? I wasn't feeling hot anymore, just wet but nothing I did helped. The man left later than me so he wasn't home yet to help.

Eventually, I got it high enough that I could just barely grab onto the stretchy part and I was able to scoot and shimmy and stretch it enough to get it off.

Will I continue to wear this dress to line dance?

Yes.

Will I continue to go on Wednesdays directly from the barn?

Yes.

Will this be what I wear on those Wednesdays when I go dance after being at the barn?

Absolutely not.

If you've made it this far, here are the sewing details:

Pattern: Cressida from Made for Mermaids for the top and waistband. The tiers are my own doing.

Fabric: rayon crepe in Willow Mist and Willow Lane from Waymaker Fabrics round 28.

I Finally Got A Convertible

2025-03-01T20:57:00.003-05:00

If you thought I was going to write up a whole post about a car, you've found the wrong blog and you should just move along. Nothing here is going to excite you.

Now, for the sewing, fabrics and bags enthusiasts, have I got something for you! This is the Convertible Totepack from Sewfisticated Craft Designs . I needed something bigger than what I've been using because inevitably, I always want to carry more in my school bag than space allows.

I have been using the Nocturne Bag from Rivet Patterns for about a year but it's just too small. It might have been easier to use if I had used a 2 way zipper on top but it wasn't suggested in the pattern.

I have outstanding hindsight and it was too late to change the zipper once I realized my mistake.

Every time I pack my bag, I think it's time to make a new one but I didn't have one in mind and I couldn't really visualize what I wanted. I can't remember now how I stumbled onto this Totepack but the more I looked at it, the more I thought I could narrow down some of the choices and really get it exactly as I wanted it. I just needed time and the right fabric.

And to get just a little more irritated with the one I was using.

When it was my turn to do another strike for Waymaker Fabrics, I knew it was time to move. When she released the new prints, the Enchanted Meadow looked perfect for what I wanted and I kept seeing it with denim.

Side note. I have a strange love affair with denim fabrics and bags. And pink. There's always some kind of pink involved if I'm making a bag for myself.

The Totepack has a lot of options and I found it hard to wrap my head around the many possibilities. I also didn't understand the reason it was called a Convertible Totepack so I did what I do and started poking around instagram and the Sewfisticated Craft Designs website. Things became much clearer as I started to see what people had done.

Right away, I started to see what I did and did not want in my version. And the convertible means that the straps/handles can be used over the shoulder, as a backpack or as a grab handle.

I knew I only wanted an over the shoulder bag and I'd never want to change that, so I didn't need the convertible part. It meant I had to figure out something different for the straps, so I decided to sew them to the exterior where they'd be hidden by the outer pocket.

The exterior pocket that I chose was only on one side of all the examples I saw, but I thought it would be nice on both sides. It's fairly snug to the bag and I'd never be keeping government secrets in there, so I didn't need any kind of closure for it. I also wanted to be able to feature the strike fabric so these outer pockets were perfect for that.

And look how well they cover the straps! It's not like straps are top secret and they need to be hidden, but I did kind of like the way they seemed to come out of nowhere on the original pattern, so I wanted to do something similar. This way, they didn't become the major feature of the exterior of the bag.

I always like to use what's called "seatbelt" straps. They are nice and firm and don't stretch and they last forever. AND, they don't dig into my shoulder. These are 1.5 inches wide. The 3/4 or 1 inch wide straps tend to sit just inside my shoulder bone and dig in.

Along with my obsession with denim for bags, I also have never seen a strap I haven't needed to "enhance". I topstitched everything in this bag with 2 strands of pink thread. When I added the straps, I couldn't stand how empty they looked. Sometimes, I use the bag fabric to run a line of fabric down the center of the straps but I didn't have enough. I finally decided just a line of topstitching down each side of the straps would be fine and I really like it!

Padded bags are kind of my thing. I don't love a bag that's just one or two layers of canvas because once you put things like a laptop, ipad, book, etc, the bag starts to look flimsy. I had used some padding in a previous bag so I used the same for this one. I think it was about 1/4 thick foam. I quilted it so it wouldn't end up bunching or sinking to the bottom of the bag over time. What I didn't think about was the quilting taking up a little bit of the fabric so my pieces weren't quite the exact size they were supposed to be once I was done. In the end, it really didn't matter but you probably should pay attention to that if you do the same.

I quilted all of the denim pieces for the exterior and since there was an option for a built in laptop pocket, I quilted those pieces too. I left the very front pieces unquilted and unpadded. I didn't want the whole thing to feel like a Vera Bradley bag because to me, those are more like overnight bags. I wanted this to still have some structure.

My quilting "pattern" was just lines on the diagonals in both directions. I wanted to use my walking foot but it was all too thick, so I needed to use my jeans foot. I was thrilled to discover that the metal guide that fits my walking foot also slid right into my jeans foot, so I had a guide. Otherwise, I would have had to measure and draw all of the lines and that would have been tedious. With the guide, I was able to just lay the guide on the previous line to get the right distance between the lines.

It took me a while to figure out the pattern and decide what I wanted to use and what would be of no use to me. Once I had that figured out and I had my fabrics, the quilting really took a long time and slowed everything to a crawl. I love the result but this is not a bag I'm in a hurry to make again and time soon.

My current bag had small pockets on the sides but they are too tight to do anything. This bag held the promise of side pockets that I can actually fit things in and would be sure to use. Some of the example pictures showed water bottles. I should know that my water bottle is always bigger than what people usually use, so mine does not fit in here. I'm going to adjust the elastics because right now, they are pretty snug. A little looser would let me slide something into it easier and then keep them from falling out because the elastic snaps back into place. I used bra elastic because I had it on hand but it probably is a little too strong for this purpose.

The inside of the bag can have more zippered and open pockets that I'd know what to do with. I knew I needed to have at least one zippered pocket because that is the place where the entire bag is turned right side out. Other than that, I didn't put any more zippered pockets because I don't use them.

If I were still teaching, I think I'd have a lot more things to carry in my bag and I'd use more pockets than I do now. What I needed from this bag is the laptop sleeve and just a couple of pockets. I measured the laptop sleeve and my own laptop but I was skeptical the entire time that it would really fit. I was so pleased when it fit and fit well! This is the first bag I've seen that has the laptop sleeve fit it lengthwise and I really like it.

I used to really dislike zippered bags but over time, I've learned to like them, especially if I have to be in the rain at all. For this bag, I chose to use a pretty wide zipper because I find them to be durable and also easier to zip in a hurry. I don't even know what the pattern suggested because I already had this zipper and I knew it would fit.

The zipper gusset is pretty cool and I thought I had a firm grasp of how it worked. I use the same fabric on the inside and the outside and I knew which was which because the interior had the white edge from the margin. Somehow in using the visuals and reading what to do, I misunderstood.

As I flipped the entire bag through the zippered pouch (I'm STILL not sure how that worked and I had to do it twice!) I was so disappointed to see that it was upside down. In making the gusset, there was trimming involved and I didn't have more of the Enchanted Meadow fabric. If I had to take out the whole zipper gusset, it was going to be a real problem.

One of the things I love about the sewing community is the Facebook pages for all of the different designers. I'm part of the Sewfisticated Craft Designs Facebook group, so I posted the video of my zipper issue and someone immediately replied that I needed to take the interior and exterior apart and then flip the zipper gusset over.

This required pushing the whole bag BACK through the zippered pocket. If you've never "birthed" a bag or then "unbirthed" it, only to "rebirth" it a few minutes later, you really haven't lived.

I was pleasantly surprised that just removing the interior and exterior from each other let me quickly access the zipper gusset. I removed that and flipped it over and that was really all that was wrong! It still took some mental gymnastics to visualize it all and trust the process but it worked!

The only thing I'm surprised about, is that the zipper opening doesn't feel as big as the actual bag. This could be my choice of zipper getting in the way because the teeth are big.

Every good bag should have a nice firm bottom panel so things don't make it sag. I put two layers of some kind of pellon that lets you sew through but it's almost like plastic. Again, I have no idea what it's called. I was nervous that it wouldn't bend enough to allow the bag to be birthed but it came through just fine.

I quilted that too and I even though no one really sees the bottom of a bag, I like how it ties everything together.

I like all of the options that came with this pattern. It took several readings to understand how it all worked but once I realized how it was laid out, it made a lot of sense. From what I could see in all of the pictures I found, people really like the straps being able to play different roles. There was also an option to add hardware that would let me clip another bag, like a lunch tote, to the front. If I bring my lunch anywhere, that's a whole bag of its own because of how much glassware I use for storage, so I didn't want to have that option with this bag. I didn't add any of the recommended hardware.

This fabric is available on the Waymaker Fabrics website beginning March 6, 2025.

Chocolate Salty Jos Cookies

2025-02-22T18:57:00.007-05:00

Have you ever had a Salty Oats cookie? I don't know if the just local to me. They're made where I live but I get the feeling they sell in fine grocery stores everywhere. They come in a few flavors.

They cost a fortune.

I rarely will pay a fortune for desserts but one day, I stumbled upon a package and they sounded like something I'd like. I had a moment of weakness.

And they were amazing. The chocolate was my favorite.

I don't think I've ever reversed engineered a recipe, but a few years ago, I was determined to figure out how they were so good and make them at home. I found a knock off recipe but it wasn't quite there.

Then, I discovered that it needed coconut. And maybe more of some things and less of others.

A little tinkering and BEHOLD:

The Chocolate Salty Jos Recipe:

2 eggs
3 T. cocoa powder
1 stick (1/2 c.) melted butter
1/3 c. coconut
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. flour
3 c. oats
1/2 t. baking soda
Up to a half cup of milk
Small amount of coarse salt
Chocolate chips are optional. (I've stopped using them because I find they interfere with the flavor.)

Combine the eggs, cocoa powder and butter first because the cocoa powder needs to be brough under control immediately. Add the rest of the ingredients. Depending on how stiff they are, you might want to add some milk. I don't want them to turn into granola, so I always add milk for a little moisture but it's never an exact amount. You want enough that it will form a shape and hold it.

Scoop out a tennis ball size amount and press down to flatten it to about 1/2 inch. Repeat until you've used all the dough. Sprinkle a couple of grains of salt onto each cookie and gently press down.

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. You want them to be firm to the touch but not burned, so check at 15 minutes and go from there.

They take a boat load of ingredients and don't make many, so treasure each one. Around here, you'll get a beating if you eat more than 2 in one sitting.

A Letter From the Sewing Community To That A-hole Autocorrect

2025-02-13T18:20:00.005-05:00

Dear Autocorrect,

We hope this email finds you well (in fact, many of us hope this email finds you under the front wheel of the 513 bus). Those of us who sew would like you to know some things and perhaps update your files.

We sew. While seeing is extremely important in the sewing process, we are not looking for seeing machines, we don’t seek advice from other seers, and we don’t generally sit around and see things together. We sew. We using sewing machines. We look for other sewers (we know this is easily confused with sewer, which we never want to seek advice from but that’s above your pay grade). We sew things together.

We use sergers. Not servers. While we indeed use servers to get the pdfs we need and to come and complain about you on Facebook, we do not surge or serve what we make. We are serging on sergers.

We are not treading or retreading anything. While those in the carpet installation business do indeed tread and retread, we are over here threading and rethreading these machines. Spoiler alert: we don’t enjoy threading our machines and tensions are usually high, so when you “help”, you make us rage.

We raise and lower the presser foot. While we usually put ourselves under a great deal of pressure, the foot is not a place where we exert any force.

While there are exceptions, most of us are not over here making Muslims. We make muslins so we know how the pattern looks and don’t walk around wearing trash. We sometimes sew on muslin, too. Not sure how anyone could sew a Muslim, but surely that’s a very small number of people who do not need your service.

While you’re looking for your latest software update, perhaps you could have a chat with the Emojis? Maybe they could create some sewing machine emojis? Not everything is done with that one blue spool of thread a a hand needle.

Maybe some embroidery emojis too? More quilt options?

And don’t give us one Emoji that’s a cheery old lady with grey hair in a bun sitting at a sewing machine. All kinds of people sew.

And sometimes, we are not cheery.

We know you take your job very seriously and you do not give up. It’s your job, after all. But when we correct you 8 times on the same word, in the same minute, and you still go back and “correct” us just as we publish, you might see why we think you’re an a-hole.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and we look forward to you getting your act together,

The sewing, crafting, costume making, leather crafting and anyone else who touches a sewing machine community.

Kitty Sleep Sacks

2025-01-25T20:31:00.011-05:00

It's been high time for some new cat beds for over a year. I made some last year that were fleece but I made the horrible mistake of using black fleece which is too much of a magnet for everything, not just cat hair. I should have thrown them away after the first time they used them.

I also did a terrible job trying to make the covers removable and they were just a hot mess.

I saw this idea for fleece sleeping bags that they could crawl into and I thought that would be fun and easy. And then I remembered these cats like to stomp down any kind of bed that I've ever bought where they were supposed to climb in and hide, so after I started my planning, I changed course. My edited on the fly design makes a lot more sense for these bed stomping fools.

In my mind, each bed would house a cat and they'd sleep the nights away all curled up in row but it's rare that all 3 of them sleep in them at the same time. And nighttime is high time for shenanigans so they have no time for sleeping.

They've never had designated beds. They seem to allow each other to sleep in whichever bed they come upon. This maximizes getting ALL of the hair all evenly over ALL of the beds.

The tutorial on the site gave me enough to get started and then I went a little nuts.

I had this saddle pad that was clean but stained and I've never liked it. I wanted to get rid of it on Facebook but that never happened. I realized I could get 2 of the 3 bases I'd need out of this saddle pad and then I could make something for the 3rd one. That would take care of upcycling the saddle pad and I knew they liked it because they'd been taking turns sitting on it for weeks while I'd been deciding what to do with it.

Making the circle and then figuring out how much fleece was needed to go around it required math. This is that math that never ceases to amaze me. The kind where you apply a formula and it works EVERY TIME. You'd think I would love math with its formulas because formulas are a certainty and I like certainties. But I can never remember how the formulas work because I don't use them enough, so math remains elusive.

The tutorial already had the math done for me but I wanted a bigger circle, so I had to redo the math. Get yourself a pen and paper because I'm going to share the simple formula: take the diameter of the circle (that's the line across the circle) and multiply it times pi (3.14). Factor in how much of a seam you're going to add when you sew the piece together and there you have it.

When I bought the fleece that I thought would be a better color to hide some of the cat hair, there were two bolts that had the same print but neither had the 3 yards that I wanted. I took them both to the cutting counter and said I would need 3 one yard pieces, however she wanted to make that happen.

The next thing I knew, she had cut me 3 one yard pieces and I was shocked.

Many years ago, at that very cutting counter, I needed to buy a lot of batting for some pillow quilts I was making with students. I told the woman I would like it cut in 2 yard increments and she very sternly told me she would not do that because that was making her do my work. I said "if I walk in a bunch of times and get 2 yards each time, you'd have to do that, right? So why can't you do this for me here, where you have all this space and the ease of rolling it out?" She refused and said they don't do that.

Apparently in 2025, they do!

The original tutorial had you making these out of felt. This made me think I should use felt between the two layers to help the sides stand up a little so they could sort of have walls around the bed. I knew they'd crush them down, but at least they'd come back up if I fluffed them and not look like deflated doughnuts.

I happened to have some felt left over from a costume I made a long time ago, so I got it out, did some more math and put it between the layers of fleece. But... never turning down an option to make an easy project that much harder and more time consuming, I decided to quilt the layers together. That way, the felt won't shift around and when they get washed, everything should stay where it belongs and hold up over time.

Once I quilted the fleece/felt sandwiches, I sewed them to the circles of saddle pad and the extra bottom that I made. I decided they were too tall because I had used the original dimensions, so I folded them down.

I wanted to tack them into place by hand because it would cover the seam, but at this point, I had 4 layers of fleece, two layers of felt and the saddle pads had fabric, batting AND foam, so there was no way a hand needle was going to get through all of that.

I had to use my jeans foot on my sewing machine which allows the foot to rock back and forth over the layers so you don't have to use a hump jumper and all of the layers can fit. This was just about the maximum amount of layers that machine will handle, though! It was easy for it to get through, so it wasn't like 8 layers of denim, which would tax the machine, but it was just so thick!

These cats have never met a new textile that they have sat upon within 5 minutes of it entering the house, so I was sure that as soon as I laid them out, they'd be in them and I could get some pictures.

It took all afternoon but eventually, Bo gave one a whirl.

I couldn't get a picture of Daisy enjoying them, but Luke tried one out.

These are a much smarter idea than the first set that I made. And this style didn't need a removable cover because there's no filling so they won't take up a lot of space or take forever to dry when I wash them.

They'll still collect all of the hair (theirs and mine) but it might look a little less hideous with this cute plaid print.

Pattern Testing Is Not For the Weak

2025-01-13T07:44:00.001-05:00

I started sewing when I was in high school, mostly figuring it out as I went along. By the time I was a senior, I was confident/foolish enough to decide to make my prom dress. I LOVED that thing. The color was outstanding. I had no idea what I was doing but I did all the hard things: invisible zipper, boning, a crazy version of that off the shoulder thing because I couldn’t quite figure it out.

I think there was a bow across the back of my hips too. It’s was 1992. Bows were a thing.

Back in the 1900s, the only pattern options we had were the big 4: McCalls, Simplicity, etc. We’d go to the fabric store, look through giant catalogs of what was available, and then go to the biggest filing cabinets you’d ever see and try to find the pattern. A lot of things still surprise me about this process.

1. We could help ourselves to the cabinets and it seemed like people mostly respected the organization and didn’t move patterns all over the place.

2. The pattern envelopes had colored line drawings of people in the clothes that sometimes looked like photographs but not really.

3. Occasionally, you could find a pattern with a real photograph on the cover.

4. If you needed help or ideas, you had to ask your grandmother, neighbor, sewing teacher from middle school home ec. There was no contacting the designer directly.

You’d walk into the fabric store with an idea and then you had to look through the catalogs to see if someone else had designed your idea. Then, you had to find the pattern. Then you had to figure out fabric and notions.

I had no more patience in the 1900s than I do in the 2000s, so I wasn’t willing to buy a pattern one day, think about it and analyze it and then go back other days for fabrics and notions. For me, it was one stop madness.

Fast forward to the 2010s or so and I got back into my clothing sewing groove when my sister told me about these people who design patterns on their own, sell them as PDFs that you print on your own and do all kinds of things to support sewists.

Welcome to sewing in the social media era.

This is not your mother’s home ec class with all of the rules about pre sewing rituals and pressing this and steaming that. This is a band of wild hooligans who throw sewing rules to the wind and do it their way.

Maybe that’s a little dramatic.

We aren’t all reckless banditos tearing up the sewing world, thumbing our noses at the centuries of sewing experts who told us we have to do it this way, and this way only. But many of us frequently confess that we “just” did it this way or “didn’t bother to” do this and you know what? The clothes fit, they don’t fall off, and the world continues spinning with a lot of happy sewists doing their thing.

The best part of this modern sewing community is access to the designers and the design process. When someone is ready to release a pattern, they ask for testers of all sizes, shapes and abilities to go through the tutorial and the pattern itself with a magnifying glass. Find all of the errors. Tell me all of the misinterpretations you had of my instructions. Make 5 muslins if necessary so I can see how it looks on your body and make the necessary changes. Stick with me as I feverishly redraw this whole section because eveyrone is showing me that it’s too long here, too short there, just not right there. I should be done by 3am. Please reprint no later than 3:10am and make another one. (Just kidding, it’s not that harsh).

Pattern testing can be brutal for both parties.

1. You’re mostly working with a bunch of strangers you’ll never see in real life. On one hand, this means you don’t have to care what you look like, how dirty your mirror is, what the room behind you looks in your pictures. On the other, you don’t get to know much about the other people and for someone like me with a wild imagination, it’s hard not to imagine life stories for each person based only on a few pictures and their comments.

2. As a tester, you’re exposing a lot of your flaws. None of the tester pictures are used except the official finals, so we see everything from terrible lighting to half dressed people to combinations of fabrics that shouldn’t see the light of day.

3. Both the testers and the designer see and talk about crotches, butts and boobs more than any other community, I would imagine. Because no matter the pattern, unless it’s a bag, one of those 3 spots is the undoing of many a sewist. Trying to get any of those curves to work for every size is the hardest part of the whole process. What works for one shape won’t work for another and that’s where the designer and the testers work together to share ideas, visuals and suggestions. One “expert” says one thing, another “expert” chimes in with the exact opposite suggestion and sometimes we get caught in the middle, not sure if we should burn down the sewing room and call it a day.

4. I can’t imagine being a designer, developing my idea and making it work for me, and then putting it out to the masses to test. Especially when a big revision has to happen. I’ve tested some patterns that seemed to need no tweaking and I’ve tested patterns that no matter the tweaking never looked good on any body except that of the designer. I’m also one of those people who takes a pattern and then changes things to suit myself. Designers must die a little when they see what some people do to their patterns. I don’t think I could deal with that as a designer.

Most of my pattern testing experiences have been positive and I’ve learned a lot. Most of all, I’ve learned that designing is not for me. Taking a pattern and doing little things here and there that I think might work? Definitely me. But putting pen to paper and drawing out a design and all of the intricacies that go with it and then sharing it for others to make and change and possibly complain about? No thanks.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

2025-01-04T16:53:00.006-05:00

I might have reached the pinnacle of my sewing career because..... I altered boots!

If you were not provided with the gift of patience or you don't have enough time to read through this missive about boots, click here and watch my video. You can even speed that up so you can cut to the chase.

If you enjoy my lengthy stories, carry on reading and then go back and watch the video.

I was not given the gift of height and though my legs are longish for my height, most winter boots look silly on me. If they don't come to the middle of my kneecap, the best they can usually do is hit just below it and it feels like I'm clomping around in someone else's boots.

I'd say I feel like I'm clomping around in my mother's boots, but a) she's shorter than me and b) in my lifetime, I have never seen her even entertain putting on a pair of boots like these.

It's like I'm parading around boots that belong to someone far taller than myself.

If I ran the boot world, I would offer several shaft heights for all boots, just as they can offer widths in many shoes. I bet many shorter people would love to be able to ask for boots that are several inches shorter so they look stylish, feel comfortable and actually want to wear them. Even the wildly expensive boot manufacturers don't offer more than one shaft height, as far as I can tell.

If shoes can come in wide widths, why can't boots comes in 2 heights?

It would also be GREAT if companies selling boots could get on the same page about where exactly the shaft height is measured. They do not always pick the same starting point so even though a lot of them now offer that information, 15 inches from one company doesn't fit like 15 inches from another so it's still very frustrating.

Sidebar: while I am an English rider, I do not wear tall boots and never plan to. I don't show, so I don't have an reason to actually buy them, but one of the many reasons I don't wear them is due to the shaft height. I realize riding boots come in different heights but I don't trust that they will fit well and comfortably.

I'm also not great at maintaining my leather when it comes to riding.

And also, I can't imagine being trapped in tall boots at the height of summer heat and humidity.

Paddock boots and half chaps have always sufficed for me.

Anyway, back to fashion boots.

I've had this pair of boots and I like the fit in the foot but every winter, I look at them thinking I'm sure I can take them down an inch or two and they'd fit so much better. I will only buy boots that are actually leather, and I avoid elastic in them as much as possible. This means they are usually more expensive than what I want to pay (faux leather and super stretchy boots tend to be a lot cheaper) but I prefer real over fake so i occasionally haul out the cash.

Every time I started to toy with the idea of cutting them out and resewing them, I'd think about how much they cost and how sad I would be if I ruined them. Was the taller height that I don't want a better choice than possibly ruining them and having nothing?

This week, the answer to that question was yes. If I'm going to continue wearing these boots then they have to come down a notch or two and if they get ruined, I wasn't going to wear them much as they were, so I was ready to cut my losses.

The process was nowhere near as hard as it seemed like it would be. There's a slight elastic gusset that gave me pause but I plowed ahead and made it work. The hardest part was taking everything apart because they were sewn and glued. The glue released pretty easily and the sewing was very easy to replicate.

The zipper wasn't that hard to deal with because they didn't have zipper stops at the top, they just curled the tape into the facing, which is what I do with zippers as well. I have no idea how to put in zipper stops and I wasn't going to reinvent the wheel here if the factory hadn't even done it.

Several people asked if my sewing machine was going to be strong enough to handle it. This particular leather isn't very thick and the facing and lining are quite thin too. The hardest part was deal with the zipper teeth so I just hand cranked over that part. My Bernina 1001 sailed right through as I expected it would. It's not a digital machine and it has the heavy duty feeling I don't get from more modern machines. I didn't try my Bernina 350 but I think that would have been fine too. Trying to work with this as an actual boot was tough because it limited some of the movements I wanted to do, but that wasn't anything related to my sewing machine.

The result, as you will see in the video is definitely similar to the original. Looking at the inside of the original, it wasn't quite as neat as I would have expected, so when mine was less than perfect, I felt like it was comparable to the original. I don't think these boots are the highest quality out there, so I'm sure less than perfect seams wouldn't have put these in the reject pile. I did get them from DSW, so maybe they were rejected. Who would know?

I don't know if I'll do this again. I'm certainly not on a quest to shorten all the boots out there and I would never do it for someone else. I have a pair of black tall boots that are on the verge of being too tall but I don't know if I will tackle shortening them this winter or if I really care. This little experiment has made this pair much more wearable and that was my goal.

If you're too tired from all of these words to scroll back up, here's the link to the video.

What's Old Is New

2024-12-28T17:31:00.004-05:00

A few months ago, I was given a tote full of these squares that k-ster's great grandmother had crocheted and given to his mother. I didn't look carefully at them the day she gave it to me, but I knew there were a lot of squares in there that needed to be put together. She said she included the string they were made from and that she wasn't sure how many were there, but it was a lot. She said she didn't care what I did with them but she didn't want the bedspread that her grandmother had probably intended them to be.

An idea started brewing that maybe I could make a couple of throws out of the squares and give them to his mother and aunts and uncles for Christmas.

In case you're new here, one of the many things I learned how to do on Aunt Mildred's porch (this is where the blog name originated, by the way) was crochet and I was pretty sure that as long as all of the squares were done, I could put them together to make something. If I had had to actually make more squares, that would have been a bigger challenge since there was no pattern included and I haven't done this specific kind of pattern before.

I also like to take on challenges because I'm a sucker for complicated things. This didn't appear to be complicated, but they never do.

I planned to work on it in the summer, when I could work outside and let everything air out because everything was pretty musty smelling. Imagine my surprise when it was November and I realized I had never taken them out of the box, let alone aired them out or put them together.

Or even looked at what was really in the box.

I decided I really couldn't do anything until I at least washed all of the squares once. This would start to get rid of the musty smell and mold spores and also tell me if they were going to survive or if they were too delicate. I had a feeling they'd be just fine.

I put them through one wash and dry cycle so the initial mold spores would wash and dry out but the smell lingered. It wasn't awful, and I knew I could work with the squares and still breathe, but I had to also figure out a way to get more of the smell out.

I was shocked to find she had already sewn most of the squares into 5 square strips. This made things much more clear and I knew it would make the whole thing easy to put together. The first thing I had to do was decide how big I would make these throws so I could figure out how many it would make.

Three strips made a pretty narrow throw. Something you'd literally put on the back of the couch, but I couldn't imagine anyone putting it over their lap. Four strips was better but now it reduced how many I could make. And left me with strips I didn't know what to do with.

I finally settled on 3 blankets: two would be 5x5 and one would be 4x5. This left me with one strip that had 2 stains that I couldn't get out. I decided to keep that strip and put it across the top of my piano. Maybe over time, the stains will come out.

After everything was washed and dried and I knew how many strips to put together, I had to figure out what size crochet hook she had used to put the strips together. You can see the stitches are very tiny. I have a lot of hooks but even my tiniest one wouldn't do anything that small. I'm a pretty tight crocheter but my smallest hook and tight hands made stitches that were too big.

I went to the store and found a 5 pack of extremely small crochet hooks. I figured one of them had to be the right size. Just for comparison, I put it next to my "typical" crochet hook that I use. The tiny one is like the size of a sewing needle at the tip, but it's exactly what I needed.

When you put crocheted blocks together, some patterns say to get a tapestry needle and sew them together and others say to crochet them together. Since she had already crocheted together all of the squares for the strips, I wanted to do the same. I also thought it might be stronger and last longer than if I just sewed them.

Some of the blocks were a little stretched out, so I got a little inventive as I crocheted them together so everything would fit.

After I finished each blanket, I draped it over my drying rack on the patio and let it sit in the sun and air all day. Then I put them all through the laundry one more time. This helped a lot with the smell. There's still something there but it's not offensive. Over time, they will each take on the smell of the house where they now live and as they get washed and dried and used, the original smell will be gone.

When all was said and done, I gave one to his mother, one to his aunt and I kept one. I originally thought I might dye ours a light blue to go with the living room colors and to make it a little more colorful than just the off white. Now that it's been in the living room (and well used during last week's super cold weather), I'm not sure I'll bother.

I imagine her original plan was to put these together in a bedspread. But, with this many strips, it would have been much bigger than a king size bed and it would have been very heavy. Even these throws are surprisingly heavy when it's just "a bunch of string". This is another reason I think crocheting them together was a better idea than sewing them. When you move the blanket around, it's a lot of pulling on the seams.

One of k-ster's uncles said I "sewed" together 3 generations by putting these together, which is true. And if they make it to any of the grandchildren, that will be a 4th!

From Nightgown to Night on the Town

2024-12-22T19:26:00.000-05:00

I used to be a huge fan of these floor length flannel night gowns. I had two of them and I remember wearing them in the winter, under the duvet, and not being hot. Somewhere along the way, I must have changed the duvet and it's much warmer because I can't even imagine wearing a flannel nightgown to sit on the bed, let alone to sleep under the covers with it on!

Those two sad nightgowns sat in my drawer for years and eventually made it into my sewing room where I was going to dismantle them and make something else out of them. I like the flannel a lot, and it's hard to find a good flannel at fabric stores right now, so I didn't want to give these away.

I took apart one of them but this red one remained a favorite cat bed for a long time in my sewing room. I'd look at it and think I should do something with it but then I'd see the cat hair and think I should wash it before I do anything and the cycle went on and on.

After making a couple of Rhapsody blouses and dresses by Love Notions this summer, I got it in my head that I needed to make these nightgowns into dresses and the Rhapsody would be my pathway. There are so many options with the Rhapsody. I have a couple of tops that I made iwth sleeves of my own doing, a couple have ties and a couple don't.

I also took the top of the Rhapsody and wanted a tiered dress so I found a pattern that had the measurements for tiers and I went crazy. There's a pink and white striped seersucker dress around here somewhere that makes me feel like I look like a cupcake but I love it.

I like the length of the Rhapsody dress but I don't like elastic at my waist. I'm so short in my torso that anything at my actual waist makes me look even shorter, so I hunted for a pattern that I already have that had the right shape and length, without an elastic.

When I was a pattern tester for 5 out of 4 patterns, I tested the Savannah in the dress length which had the exact waist shape I wanted. The two patterns are similar but the Savannah has a very difficult binding on the V and a dart, so the Rhapsody is easier, by far. They both have a yoke that is part of the armscye so I wondered if it was possible to start the Savannah shaping below the Rhapsody yoke.

The picture shows the back view of the Savannah. On the back of both patterns, the yoke stops in the same place, so I just took the Savannah back, placed it alongside the Rhapsody back and made sure the part that goes into the armscye was the Rhapsody one and drew from there. It ended up narrower than the back for the Rhapsody which is what I wanted because I feel like my last top was very billowy in the back. I still gathered a very tiny bit but not as much as I normally would with the size I have been using.

On the front, I started right at the end of the armscye for the front on the Rhapsody and drew the Savannah on down. My last Rhapsody blouse made me wonder if I should go down a size, especially for the back. It's a very comfortable top, but it's not as shapely as it could be. I was a little worried that because the shaping at the waist is deeper on the Savannah, it might throw off the fit of the Rhapsody. And since I was adding the button placket and my math is sketchy, it is entirely possible that the whole thing would end up too tight.

When I made the flannel blouse, I had already taken apart the sleeves from the other nightgown, so I laid the sleeves out flat and cut the upper edge to match the upper edge of the sleeve for the Rhapsody. With this one, I didn't open up the seams on the sleeves because I didn't want to also interrupt the cuffs. I debated trying to finagle the upper edge of the sleeve so I could cut it to match the pattern and then I decided that since it's such a generous sleeve, surely I could make it fit.

I made sure to match up the side seams with the sleeve seams and keep the front going toward the front and the back toward the back. I think they went in pretty well.

I am not much of a fan of big, luscious sleeves, and because this had been a nightgown, they sleeves had plenty of room. They are much more full than I would choose for a dress but I think they work just fine. And I was short on time the day I made this, so it saved a lot of steps not having to redo the sleeve seams and the cuffs.

I really like how this dress came out. I barely had enough to squeak out the dress length because the front of the nightgown had those pintucks and the button placket, so I didn't have as much fabric to work with as it seemed. The bottom of the side seams is less wide than my pattern pieces were but I actually like this width better so I didn't lose anything.

I ended up having enough fabric to make binding for the neckline and the hem. Because the hem is curved and I was short on time, I knew a deep hem was going to be a nightmare. People say making binding is a pain and I agree, but I think it was less aggravating to make the binding and sew it on than it would have been to fiddle with the curve of the hem.

I feel like the neck is a little naked in this. I could wear it with pearls as people suggested but I think pearls are a little much for a flannel dress. I debated doing something else around the neckline but nothing made sense to be. I still have the collar from the nightgown but it looks like a nightgown collar so I know that would just be weird.

My initial intention was to make this early enough in December to wear it once or twice before Christmas. I don't get dressed up for Christmas day but I do usually dress nicely for work. I managed to start taking the nightgown apart in plenty of time to get this made but then other things came up in between and knowing I had to actually draw out the pattern, I couldn't get to it early enough. If it were any other color but red, I'd wear it all winter, but I think it might questionable after Christmas.

Maybe I can get away with it once in January.

That One Time She Turned the Christmas Tree Around

2024-12-10T19:48:00.008-05:00

I haven't told a story on this blog in so many years, anyone reading this probably doesn't even know that's what I used to do, almost daily.

As Christmas comes closer, there's a memory that comes rushing to the forefront of my brain because it was so startling but also hilarious in the end. This involves a little setup before I can tell the actual story, so sit down for a minute and enjoy.

I live next door to my parents, about 100 yards or so from their door. I grew up in this house and when I was in high school, my parents built a new house right next door and we lived there and rented out the house I'm currently in. After college, I moved in here which is helpful for my parents in the summer when the campground is open.

My parents are still pretty spry and both still have all of their faculties (do any of us really have ALL of our faculties at any age?) so they don't need anyone "looking after them" or checking in on them. Days, weeks can go by and I don't go over or see them, and it's not weird. They never come to my house because THAT would be weird.

This is not Everybody Loves Raymond with the irritating in-laws next door who are always in everyone's business.

I'm over their house a lot more than they're at mine, and that's really important for this story. Like, they never come to my house unless it's to look at something that needs fixing, or to feed the cats if we are away.

Another important piece of information is that this house is really old and I sometimes I think I hear things but it turns out to be nothing or just the cats. My sewing room is upstairs, kind of tucked in a back corner. I like to listen to music and the radio is in one room while I sew in another so it needs to be kind of loud.

I'm sure nothing I have here in quotes was actually what was said but it's so much more fun to read something in quotes and imagine it was really what was said verbatim, right? It's all true, it just might not have had so much color. Or maybe it had more. It was a wild 45 minutes.

One Saturday in December, I was upstairs sewing my brains out. When I have music on and get caught up in what I'm sewing, I'm pretty oblivious. I have no idea where k-ster was, and I knew I was alone.

Sometime mid afternoon, I heard a noise. I thought it was a cat meowing so I didn't pay attention. I heard it again and realized it was my mother.

My mother!

IN MY HOUSE!

Yelling my name.

In distress. Not feeble old shaky lady voice, but not her usual voice either, like maybe she had been crying.

Who fell? What's on fire? Who died? What is so urgent that she had to come over here and not just call or text????

I jumped up and got to the top of the stairs to find her standing at the bottom of the stairs in what we call in my family "a lather". Worked up, distraught, in a dither. Almost wringing her hands. Not crying, but she was amped. You get the picture.

"What???" was all I could say.

"I knocked the Christmas tree over and...."

"Where's dad?" I said.

"Out and I can't get it back up. Do you think you can help me?"

I grabbed my shoes and a coat and we walked back across the driveway, my mother still in her lather, me thinking I would just pop the tree back up and get back to whatever I was fervently sewing.

She was being a awfully dramatic about knocking the tree over.

We walked in the door and well, there was the tree, laying down. Partially naked, partially decorated, what ornaments were on there all askew. Ornament hooks everywhere.

She had the tree about half decorated and when I say decorated, I mean with an assortment of ornaments, many very old and delicate. I'd noticed for the past decade or so that some of those heirloom ornaments had seen better days. Paint was missing, faces no longer had a mouth or eye paint.

But they were sentimental, so I hadn't said anything.

One set of ornaments is all different parts of the nativity, each its own ornament that someone had made for her. They're pretty heavy and always want to slide off the branches.

There have always been lots of "typical" round ornaments, the kind that are now often made of plastic but in previous decades were made with some kind of thin material, like glass, that explodes on impact. And by impact, I mean the hardwood floor that has a tree skirt but those things never fall on the soft, cushioned tree skirt do they?

And many of those orbs are red.

She had already wrapped the lights around it. I can't remember if they were turned on, but for effect, let's say they were.

Boxes and boxes of ornaments were set up in front of where the tree fell and some ornaments were already broken on the floor. Several had "exploded" on impact, a few were missing parts and a lot were unscathed. The old ornaments seemed to have suffered the most.

She was still grumbling about the mess and how we were going to pick up the tree and how mad she was. I was busy doing the math to figure out how two 5 feet tall women were going to pick up this 6-7 foot tall tree and set it upright. I wasn't worried about the weight, it was a cut tree, but if you are short, you know that physics plays a mean trick when you try to stand something upright that's taller than you.

Did I mention there was a plastic base affixed to the tree? The kind with the 3 screws that sit against the trunk? That you put water in so the tree doesn't dry out?

This base is round, not the square kind I've seen in recent years.

There were also towels on the floor. To sop up the water that had spilled from the plastic base as the tree fell.

To recap: on the floor were wet towels and still some open water, ornaments in varying conditions from totally fine to smashed to smithereens, ornament hooks all over the place, balsam needs from the tree, boxes of ornaments bearing witness to this mayhem, some assortment of extension cords and the tree itself.

This scene was not OSHA approved.

Regardless of how tall you are, have you ever tried to stand up something heavy that's plastic, on a hardwood floor? And that plastic happens to be a round disc?

I'd stand behind the tree, grab it around the middle and somehow swoop it upright and get it set on its base, all in one smooth movement. I couldn't see any way for her to actually assist without one of us falling down, so I told her to move out of the way. I figured if I did it fast enough, inertia and gravity would help me. More ornaments would probably fly off, but there were already some broken, so what's a few more?

I stood behind the tree. I leaned over and grabbed it around the middle. I picked it up with a mighty heave and it started to come up.

And then the plastic base, which is round at the bottom, caught the floor and instead of standing straight up, did a pirouette around itself and me and fell back to the floor, now exposing its other side, flinging ornaments right and left.

Lights subtly blinking as the dust settled.

Physics is such a bitch.

There was shattering.

There was screaming.

We were both screaming. At each other, at the tree, at the destruction. Screaming in fury, in astonishment and probably on the verge of hysterics.

I looked up to see my mother standing, inexplicably, with the vacuum wand in her hand. I realized the vacuum was running. How had I not noticed that in the 60 seconds I was dancing with the tree, she had started to clean up the mess?

My mother cannot stand a mess.

Now she was screaming over the vacuum, with the wand still in her hand "Oh my GOD what are we going to do now???"

I usually start with "what if you..." "can you..." "I think you should..." "Maybe you could..." but in chaos of the vacuum running, the tree on the ground for the second time, water now creeping through my socks, bits of ornaments all around, I said "You're going to put that down and sit in that chair while I turn off the vacuum and try to pick this up again."

I resumed my position behind the tree, grabbed it in the middle, pulled and used the strands of lights to assist, and finally it was up.

But the carnage it revealed on the floor was astounding. The shattered glass, balsam needles, ornament hooks, chipped ornaments detritus that was slowing getting wet from the water that the towels didn't pick up.

And a dustpan.

Two or three more ornaments met their demise as I surveyed the scene before me, quietly exploding like the last couple of fireworks on the 4th of July.

My mother was sitting in the chair I assigned her but somehow had a broom in her hand, pointed at the mess. How did she find a broom that fast?

We had to clean up but do we sweep or vacuum or just scoop up everything into the wet towels and throw it all out? No solution was going to be ideal but we needed to clean up before more slipping and falling and breaking happened.

I vacuumed, she swept and somehow another ornament crashed to the floor and exploded into the mess.

At least one of us screamed.

The bubbling hysteria in my body was about to boil over at this point. I wasn't sure if I was going to laugh, cry, scream or throw up. What should have been a quick 5 minute trip had turned into a wild afternoon.

In the middle of cleaning it up, deciding which chipped ornaments should stay or go and my mother being disappointed that so many of the old relics had bit the dust, I stepped on another ornament that we either hadn't seen or had just rolled from somewhere.

I don't think either of us had the energy to scream.

I leaned down to pick it up a piece and there was a RED STREAK on the floor. We both thought one of us was bleeding and leaving streaks of blood on the floor.

Another round of freaking out and yelling ensued.

Out of concern for the person bleeding or the now permanent streak of red on the floor, I can't be sure.

No one was bleeding.

An old ornament had smashed on the floor and we inadvertently ground it down to powder during the cleanup. The red coloring made a nice red powder, that when combined with the dampness that was still on the floor led to a nice streak of red "paint" that no amount of rubbing or sweeping would remove.

With the floor clean, except for the red streak, and things quieting down, my mother dismissed me so she could finish decorating in peace.

On Christmas day, I sat on the floor near that red streak and told the story of how it got there. Over time, it faded away, though in the crack between the floorboards you can sort of detect a smidge of red. It makes me smirk every time I see it.

Not Modern Enough to Use Modern Conveniences

2024-02-22T09:44:00.011-05:00

This is for all of you out there using something other than your hands to raise and lower the presser foot on your sewing machines.

I have two Bernina sewing machines and both have the option to insert a rod like this into that little hole on the front. This view is on my 1001 model but my newer 350 model has it as well. Both came with the knee lift rods. The bend in the rod allows it to go under your table so you can "simply" press your knee against it and it will raise and lower your presser foot, hands free. I say "simply" in quotes because I have no idea how simple it is to use.

Confession: I've had my Bernina 1001 for almost 30 years and a newer 350 but I've always been afraid to use the knee lift. Why? Two very silly reasons. For one, I don't know how to use it and never bothered to look at a video. But mostly because I've always been afraid that I'd get so used to it, I wouldn't ever be able to use a sewing machine that didn't have this option, no matter how good the rest of the options might be.

Anyone else out there have this problem? You have access to a modern convenience that will make your life so much better but you won't use it in case you love it and can't live without it? I'm looking at you, backup cam in my car. I refused to use it in case I become so reliant on it, I can't back up the old fashioned way. This happens more than I'd like which is a great example of irony because the very crux of my job is technology and how it can be leveraged to improve things.

This must be a GenX problem, right?

Back to why I've called you all here.

The more I see people in their videos appearing to magically raise and lower presser feet without no hands, the more I wonder why on earth I have two machines that will do this and refuse to bother. Isn't this the kind of thing I would LOVE? I'm all about efficiency and surely the micro milliseconds I will save not moving my hand to raise and lower the presser foot will make my life so much better, right? So I keep thinking, I should really figure this out.

And I sat down to think about thinking about it and came up with a new dilemma. How does the knee lift work if you have a standing desk? When I upgraded my sewing space a few years ago, I left behind the old sit at a table thing and put in a counter where all of my machines live. The 350 is missing from this picture but it sits to the left of the 1001 most of the time. I stand or use the stool. When I'm quilting or trying to sew something unwieldy like these grain bags, I bring it to a table so I can spread everything out. At that table I do sit, but when I'm doing anything else, I'm at this counter. I don't think I can stand and press the knee lift and the way I have everything arranged, I'm not sure I can sit on the stool and use it either. I know I could just try it and see what happens but I also know that if I use it once and LOVE it and then find out I can't use it in my current set up, I'm going to be so mad and rethink everything about the set up I like so much.

It's very complicated here in my brain when I'm having such first world dilemmas.

I'd love to hear from you if you use a knee lift system and especially if you use it with a standing desk or something similar to mine.

Not Your Average Grain Bag

2024-02-13T10:32:00.001-05:00

A few years back, I learned how to make a bag from some kind of tutorial that had very specific dimensions in mind in the tutorial.

One thing led to another, and I realized you can make any size you want, make it as deep and wide as you want, add handles, etc. You can even add pockets inside or outside! That one takes some pre-thinking and I won't tell you how many times I didn't pre-think correctly and have had weird pockets in weird places.

I did correctly pre-think on this one and successfully incorporated the whale into my design. The inside pocket locations were questionable though.

I don't remember if the original had you make a lining, but it's as simple as making another bag with the same dimensions and then sewing the two together. This hides all of the seams and you get that fun experience of "birthing the bag" where you pull it all through so everything is right side out.

I made this tutorial to give everyone just a nugget of an idea. Once you get the concept, you'll be off and running!

My latest endeavor has been trying to find ways to upcycle grain bags from the barn. We have all of these grain bags from the enormous amounts of grain they eat, and most just get thrown away. I've seen a lot of people just wash them, cut them down a little bit, make handles from the parts they cut away and sell them as is.

I tried that but I didn't like the result. Too noisy and the handles were terrible. I didn't really trust their durability. I learned after making this bag with the fancy handles that webbing is really the best way to make durable straps for a bag. They last forever and I've been known to upcycle from one bag to another.

Fast forward to my overactive brain thinking I should quilt some batting scraps to the back of the grain bags and then line them. That quieted things down nicely and then I got creative with pockets and linings.

My favorite addition is this green fabric on the webbed straps. Webbing comes in a variety of colors, but darker is really better if it's going to be a bag that might get dirty or used a lot. The green in the brand name got me thinking and I found some fabric in my stash to match so I sewed it on top.

The fun didn't stop there. From the scraps of leftover scraps, I made a little clip holder for my sewing room.

All of the bags (not my little clip holder) are available in my etsy shop.

Winners All Around

2024-02-03T16:58:00.001-05:00

A couple of months go, I won some "misprint" fabrics from Waymaker Fabrics. They were hardly misprints. Two of them seemed to have absolutely nothing wrong with them and one had a clear misprint but it was easy to work around.

Melvin's birthday is right after Christmas and while I found things to get him for Christmas, I was really stuck for something for his birthday. I don't usually make clothes for other people, mostly because I don't think I'll get the size right or they will pull too hard and a seam will pop, but his mother has made some clothes for him, so I asked if there was a pattern she uses for a hoodie. I figure you can't really go wrong with a hoodie.

She recommended the kids Classic Sweatshirt from Peek A Boo patterns. I thought about fabric I had on hand and thought this black and gold from Waymaker Fabrics might be kind of cool. It's not my kind of print but it seemed like something he'd wear.

The fabric is an athletic stretch, like you'd wear for leggings, so I wanted to line it to make it a little warmer. This kid lives in hoodies and tries to wear them as coats. I had some thin waffle knit that I thought would be perfect because it's a little too thin to make a shirt out of but it would give a little warmth to this without making it too thick to sew.

I cut the pieces out of the main fabric and the lining and then just sewed them together as thought it was one fabric. I didn't want to go through the effort of sewing two hoodies and then sewing them together. They stuck to each other pretty well, probably because it's winter and static is the name of the game around here in the winter months.

The instructions were clear and easy to follow and I kind of guessed on the sizing. At first, I felt like it would almost fit me and he's not that big, so I was afraid it would swim on him. I think it's a pretty good fit and he seemed to like it!

Falling For A Henley

2024-01-18T18:30:00.007-05:00

I’ve never been quite sure if I like a Henley neckline. They look like this line drawing that I grabbed from the pattern, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen them with and without buttons and sometimes, the buttons even go up higher than the buttonholes which has always puzzled me. I’ve seen the placket this width but also wider. The biggest reason I’m never sure if I like a Henley is because it usually looks very casual, to the point of just rolled out of bed and grabbed some long underwear to throw on before I do chores. Is it old timey? That’s not usually a reason for me to avoid a piece of clothing. I don’t really know what has turned me off to them in the past.

Fast forward to the beginning of the month when Rivet Patterns was looking for testers for a Henley. But not just any old Henley. The Hawthorn Henley could be a top or a dress, has a bunch of sleeve lengths and it’s designed so that you could have buttons or no buttons on the placket. The no button option piqued my interest because I thought I could class it up a little and change my mind about henleys.

And by class it up, I mean make it look like more than just a shirt to do chores. My clothing tends to be work wear or looked like I climbed out of the gutter. There’s no weekend casual for me. It’s “nice” or “WHAT have you been doing?”. There’s no in between, For me, a typical Henley isn’t really work wear and I don’t need extra clothing for mowing the grass and getting dirty.

I had just the fabric in mind for this classy idea.

But first, as with every pattern, I needed to do a muslin, which is a test drive. It’s best not to just wing it with a new pattern and use your favorite fabric, especially if it’s a pattern test. Pattern testing can sometimes have many versions before the final is working for everyone, so sometimes, you have to make it a few times to get it just right.

Even with designers I’ve used before, I always do a muslin to make sure a new pattern fits the way I expect because things don’t always sit on the body the way we imagine. Especially with my vivid imagination that forgets I’m not tall and my torso is smaller than clothing thinks it should be.

My muslin was done in this stellar fabric that I got in a mystery box. It’s some kind of double brushed poly and I knew I’d never wear this in public. Not even for “WHAT have you been doing” activities. But it was perfect to test a pattern and I had enough to make the top twice which was fantastic.

When testing, I don’t like to change fabrics if I have to make a second or third version because then I’m not sure if the changes in fit are due to a different fabric or because I made a change to the pattern pieces.

In this case, I went down a size at the top and graded to the larger size after the waist. You may wonder where that Henley placket is. I did it for the first one, to make sure I knew how to do it and that I could follow the instructions. When Rachelle gave me tips for my second attempt, she wisely said not to bother with the Henley placket and just to do the regular neckline to save time.

There are instructions and a pattern piece for just a regular neckline like this! This pattern really covers it all!

This fabric is a crinkle rayon and my original thought was to make this a dress with the regular placket length and no buttons, and long sleeves with the nice flow but no cuffs. Just elastic. This ended up being the last one that I made and it is too sheer to work as a dress so I made a top.

While I normally have to shorten patterns up to 3 inches at the shorten/lengthen lines in the torso, for this pattern, the waist actually hit my own waist, The length turned out to be below that for me, so I just shortened at the hemline. It turned out to be about 2.5 inches and seeing it now, I could have gone the extra half inch and I wouldn’t be disappointed.

My first version was this pointelle that I received in a mystery box. I love the color even though periwinkle isn’t really my thing. I had a top like this a long time ago and loved how the color looked on me, so I was drawn to it. It was probably just about 1 yard, so I had to go with short sleeves. I also didn’t want to use buttons because the pointelle makes it feel a little classy.

Classy or not, this fabric was a bear. It didn’t quite drape the way I wanted and the holes end up being big enough that I think I need to wear something under it, which wasn’t at all what I had planned. I love the color but, I’m really not sure I’m going to wear it.

My final version that I ended up falling in love with is one of the “grannies” fabrics from The Fabric Snob *affiliate link*. It’s an organic cotton waffle knit that’s incredibly stretchy. It actually has terrible recovery and shows every little finger mark as you touch it to straighten it out, but I love how this came together. It’s very cozy with a tank top underneath for warmth in this frigid weather.

I wanted a tunic, but we had an interesting chat in the pattern testing group that lead me to think tunic isn’t really what I mean. I want something I can wear with leggings but most tunics end up being just a little shorter than I want. In truth, the ideal length is something that I could wear with bare legs but might raise some eyebrows at the shortness. I’d mostly wear it with leggings but could go bare if I wanted.

That led to doing view B, the mini dress version, with the sleeves from view A with cuffs and a hood. I did the placket in a very light but extremely lovely fabric that I had used for a sunshirt and added buttons (with actual buttholes that really aren’t even necessary) and decided to give the hood the same fabric as a binding.

And then, I drove this bus completely off the road and bound the hem!

None of this binding nonsense was suggested in the tutorials but sometimes ideas take over and lead to something I end up loving. We won’t talk about what happens when ideas take over that lead to something else.

As I wore this in the cold weather, I kept thinking that with this fabric in particular, this could be a GREAT beach cover up! It’s absorbent and soft and cozy so you could totally end up wearing this on a cool beach afternoon!

On their own, each of the patterns is fabulous, but you might as well get the bundle because you will undoubtedly want to use something from one view on the other! The placket isn’t hard, it just involves several steps. It’s magic when it comes together.

If you just like the fit, save time and effort by going with a regular neckband and no placket.

You could spend days deciding which sleeve style and length to do. Better yet, make one in every sleeve style!

The tutorials from Rivet Patterns are so well done. They are thorough. They have excellent drawings and videos if you need the actual step by step help. They have great links to fitting advice and tips. I sew a lot and would say I’m advanced in my skills and I always learn something with one of their patterns.

It’s almost like the designers actually WANT you to be a successful sewist 🙃

Frankensteined Frankie Polo

2023-11-27T17:34:00.004-05:00

I’ve arrived at a place in my sewing where just about every pattern I see asks me what I’m going to do to change it. It’s like a compulsion. Sometimes, the change is minor and sometimes, like with my sweater coat, it’s nothing like anyone intended but it was exactly my vision.

Love Notions recently released the Frankie Polo and I like the split neckline. I also like the knit bodice and sleeves with a woven collar and placket. My first attempt was a mess and I won’t be sharing pictures or wearing it in public. As I suspected, the neckline was too big and deep for me and there were other issues with the size I foolishly chose. I wanted to make a fleece top for winter riding and thought I should go up from my usual size but I did not need to!

I thought for a while about what to do. I knew I could go down a size but that wasn’t going to fix the neckline. I’m never a fan of Henley or polo shirts with plackets that go too far down the chest and looking at the examples on a lot of people, it just wasn’t going to be what I wanted.

Then I looked some more at the drawing of the pattern and realized it is a very boxy fit. I kind of like a top that goes in at the curves, sometimes, so I thought about the whole thing some more and this is where the wheels get spinning so fast they either come flying off and someone gets knocked out or we fly right up to and A+ and I’m a genius.

Could I somehow shorten the length of the placket?

What if I shorten the placket AND mash this with a pattern that I know fits me pretty well, the Panama Tee.

First, I had to figure out how to shorten the placket. This was one of those moments when some other being took over my body and I somehow did exactly what I wanted. If only it was always this easy. This v sits more where I wanted it. Nothing choking me but also not at all revealing or wanting a stitch to keep the bottom closed.

Once I knew that would work, I had to figure out how to transfer the neckline to the Panama Tee Dress pattern that is pretty tried and true for me. The necklines are really different in the front and different enough in the back that I knew I had to change both. This also meant using the sleeves for the Panama Tee which I was happy about because with this fabric, I wasn’t going to have enough for the sleeves in the Frankie Polo but the Panama Tee sleeves are smaller so it was going to work!

I took both fronts pattern pieces and lined them up at the shoulder to see what I could do. I drew both of them onto one paper, in different colors so I could keep the lines right and cut out my new front. For the back, I only had to change a little bit but I did the same process.

Then I worried about the collar. I figured there was no way the collar would be long enough because my new neckline seemed a little longer. I wasn’t worried about the placket because since I shortened it, the original Frankie Polo pattern piece was plenty long enough. But that collar.

I cut out one collar piece just to try it, once I put the front and back together. I was amazed that it fit, I got right to work.

And then I got completely carried away with cuffs😂. The collar and cuffs came from a button down shirt that I made and stopped wearing. My initial hope was that I could just take the collar and transfer it but that didn’t work. Then I saw the cuffs and got really excited but quickly realized I had already, inexplicably, cut off one of the cuffs and it’s long gone. I started from scratch and I’m pretty pleased with the detail! They can fold back or stay as they are.

This fabric was in a mystery box from Surge Fabric Shop so I have no idea what it is. I suspect there’s polyester in there. But I like the stretch and drape and this tomato red is one of my favorite colors and it’s really hard to find.

I like this enough that I want to make another one but it’s not really my style. I could easily make too many of these and it would be weird. I wore this and couldn’t stop thinking all day that I was able to make this come to life in exactly the way I wanted it to be. This is the danger of sewing because now I think I can just mash any patterns together to make magic and oh, I could not be more wrong!

All the Pumpkin Spice I Need

2023-10-16T17:06:00.000-04:00

I might have raved about the modal French terry fabric from Waymaker fabrics here and all over instagram and I’m about to do it again ! I bought the orange heather modal French terry for an unknown project. I knew it would be orange but I wasn’t sure how bright it would be, so I didn’t know if I’d make a shirt or a dress.

I was thrilled to see that’s it’s more like a pumpkin spice orange than a construction worker orange. It’s super soft, which is why I love this fabric and it drapes so well! The print is a really nice heather. People kept telling me when I wore it that it’s such a fall dress. Guess what folks, I’ll be wearing it all winter too!

I decided to go with a dress length and love it! I took the Panama tee dress pattern from Alina Design Co. and added a little flair to give it some flow. The pattern as written is a pretty straight dress so this is very swingy compared to the original. I like the way this pattern fits and it’s become a basic I turn to again and again to try different ideas that come to me.

And now I have to buy some brown leather boots because black isn’t doing it for me with this color.

My experience with the other two pieces of fabric that I bought from Waymaker fabrics is that the dye holds up well and the fabric doesn’t pill, so I highly recommend this fabric when you order anything! It looks like this particular print is out of stock right now but any of the prints that are available would be marvelous on the modal French terry! Once you wear one thing made of it, you won’t be able to think about anything else!

Waymaker Fabrics Round 6

2023-09-01T20:21:00.009-04:00

Pre-ordering for Round 6 is open from August 31-September 14.

As a strike sewist for Waymaker Fabrics, I chose this Blush Flowers on modal French terry as my test fabric for Round 6. I love the peach and greencolors with the oatmeal background and I thought these colors would be perfect to go from summer to fall in a sleeveless dress.

The beginning of the school year can still be really hot here and well into October, I wear sleeveless tops and dresses with a sweater, if needed. Usually its needed in the morning and then we are melting by the afternoon! French terry can sometimes be heavy, better suited to cold weather clothes, but in the spring, I made a tank dress in French terry that was lightweight enough for summer. I was hoping this modal French terry might be the same way. Modal is made from natural fibers and is considered a sustainable resource. I’m trying so hard to stop with polyester blends and not everything can be made from cotton. It’s such a soft fabric, I can’t stop touching it every time I wear it! My favorite thing is that I’ve washed it several times and there is ZERO pilling. That’s huge for me. I don’t love those eco friendly fabrics out there that end up pilling or just looking old after only a few wears.

This modal French terry is also lightweight and silky without feeling wet. I wore it twice on very hot days and did not feel like it clung to me and I never felt stuffy in it. It made me want to make more summer dresses out of it! It also flows really nicely and drapes well off the body. The wrong side of this fabric is just as soft as the right side and it would make some cozy pajamas too! People dont really do this, but what if you sewed two pieces facing each other into a winter scarf? That would be so soft and cozy around the face! Let's start a trend!

Round 6 includes this same print in Fire Flowers and Maroon Flowers. I can’t stop staring at the Fire Flowers and might have to preorder some to make a cardigan for the winter! All of mine are solids and this would be a nice twist. You can also get these prints on canvas and I’m thinking I’d like a bag with the Fire Flowers too❤️

There are other new prints in Round 6 as well as fabrics that pair well with them. Pre-ordering is open from August 31-September 14. You can get your print on Cotton Lycra, Tencel Cotton, Modal French Terry, Canvas, French Terry, Jersey and Athletic Knit. The content of each fabric is listed as you choose which one you want, which I love about this company!!

Pick A Date and We’ll Think About Getting Started Within the Week

2023-08-27T08:00:00.002-04:00

This is the face you get when you are Petco (not affiliated) and you tell me to pick a date for repeat delivery and then you don’t actually abide by that date.

I’ve been a big Chewy fan (not affiliated) for years because they have the prescription cat food that one of my cats needs for crystals in his bladder. Violating hippa, showing the patient, but he’s so cute, why not?

Trying to get it in person near me would be a pain and cost a lot more, so my vet told me about Chewy and I’ve been really happy. You get a slight discount for regular orders and when you choose a date, that’s when it ships.

See that last sentence? That’s where Petco needs some tutoring. You choose a date and it ships.

When Fletcher arrived, he came with a specific rice bran pellet that I can’t find anywhere around me for any kind of reasonable price. Not wanting to change things right away, I knew I’d be buying this for a while. Chewy doesn’t have it. I keep checking. If they had it, none of this would have happened.

Petco has it for $10 less than anyone else. Conveniently, they also have a pick a date to ship system, so I expected it to work just like Chewy:

I pick a date, they get it together and ship it on that date, I get it within a few days of that date. Everyone eats, no one is worried and I’m happy with the service.

🚨 Spoiler alert 🚨 I am not happy. Everyone is worried. If I’m not careful, no one eats.

Because with Petco, and I have this from 2 different customer service agents in two ways (on the phone and over chat), that date is when Petco begins the process. They give themselves 24 hours to pack it. AND THEN, they give themselves 2-5 business days to get it shipped. Which for me will possibly be another week to 10 days for shipping, depending on whatever determines shipping in my area.

Are you as furious as I am? Let’s recap:

I selected the 24th as my order date.

The 24th came and went and I realized I didn’t get the email that said it had been shipped. I’ve been ordering online for a long time, I’m kind of a pro, so I know I’m supposed to get that email.

2 days later, on the 26th, which is more than 24 hours later in case math isn’t your thing, I contacted Petco twice where twice, I was told their policy.

They had it packed and now they have 2-5 business days to actually ship.

Meanwhile, someone plows through rice bran faster than I expected (it’s only been 1.5 months so give me a break) so I didn’t have a spare bag. The only place nearby has it but it’s literally $10 more. But I was desperate because he had like 2 meals left so I bought it.

And now I wait 2-5 business days plus whatever shipping days for my supply to arrive.

Of course I’ve ordered extra and now I know this asinine policy so I will be sure to stay on top of it. Because they have it cheaper, I have to keep getting it from them. Not a soul on this planet has it that cheap which is another concern all together, but that’s not why I brought you here.

I brought you here to suggest that if you’re thinking about using Petco, look elsewhere. They also neglected to give me the 35% off my first repeat order, which they proudly display all over their website so, yep, I had to contact customer service for a 3rd time.

Sara Everyday Tank and Dress

2023-07-25T12:50:00.003-04:00

The 5outof4patterns (affiliate link) Sara Everyday Tank and Dress is such a easy and versatile pattern! It's a staple you should have in your stash because it's super easy to whip up last minute!

I’ve made a few of the tops and really like the fit and the ease in the waist. It really is for everyday wear! When I decided to make it into a dress, I knew I wanted even more flow, so I use the top and then extended it based on the width and length of another pattern I have customized for knit dresses. The dress in the actual pattern (affiliate link) is a little closer fitting through the hips than I wanted, mostly because it allows you to make it all the way to a maxi length dress.

At 5'2", maxi is not for me.

I bought a "surprise pack" from Discovery Fabrics that had this pink and white striped bamboo stretch jersey, an oatmeal bamboo cotton jersey and a black micro tencel.

As soon as I remembered I had the Sara Everyday pattern (affiliate link), I knew the pink and white stripes needed to be a dress. This fabric is amazing. Its lightweight but not see-through. Stretchy but not too much. In fact, the neck and arm bands hold up so nicely with this fabric! I feel like I've already worn this too much this summer but a) I love pink and b) it's so easy to wear!

If you follow me on social media, you know how proud I am that these stripes matched so nicely on the sides 😂

This micro tencel fabric is very slippery and easy to wear. Not the best to work with because of that slipperiness but it's not the worst. The only drawback is that because of the stretch, my arm and neckbands get a little stretchy as the day goes on. I had already reduced the length in the bands a little bit, but I should have reduced it more.

I also made the oatmeal stretch jersey into a tank but the arm and neckbands are very wonky so I'm debating taking them off and doing it again. I didn't bother to take a picture because I dont love how the bands came out.

For a beginner, this tank or dress is a fantastic option because it's only the front and back pieces, and the bands. For an expert, you can knock this out in a half hour, including cutting, unless you permanently play fabric tetris because you never have enough fabric!

Get your copy today! (affiliate link)

Sunshirts: So You Can Sweat In Style and Pretend You Feel the Cooling

2023-07-13T08:14:00.001-04:00

As a fair skinned person who spends innumerable hours outside, I’m always worried about sun protection. Living as I do on the coast, you’d think I spent all of my childhood summers baking at the beach but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I did go to the beach, but not all day, every day, and I did often wear long sleeved shirts or sunscreen to try to keep the sun off. I never wanted to be super tan because it seemed like a burn was always my skin’s first choice. I got my share of sunburns though never so bad they blistered or needed the ER.

Fast forward to my adult years and ta da, I had a basal cell carcinoma which isn’t as scary as many kinds of skin cancer but is still something to have removed and scare the crap out of me in the meantime. The one I had removed was on top of my head, which is interesting because I do wear hats a lot outside, and a helmet always when I ride, but there were many, many years of outdoor running with a visor instead of an actual hat. Lesson learned.

No doubt, I’ll get more of these lovelies and possibly other things in my lifetime, so now I’m extra nuts about keeping out of the sun. Impossible when I garden, ride horses, live my entire life to be outside in the summer, etc. I’m really slick about knowing where the sun is in relation to my yard at various times of the day so I know I can’t weed on that side of the house until after 2, etc., but for the rest of the time that I can’t really hide, I wear sunshirts.

I got my first sunshirt for free with purchase of something for riding and I was impressed that it was lightweight, had “vents” for cooling under the arms, didn’t stick to me when wet and kept me from getting burned. I tried a variety of them, found one I loved and, you guessed it, they stopped making that style.

Fast forward to 2019 when I started making my own. I started with the Greenstyle Pacific Pullover and tried a lot of adjusting to try to get the underarm cooling vents in just the right spot. I made a bunch in the next couple of years, with varying placements of the mesh for cooling but the sleeve was always a little strange.

Then I made the Ascent from 5outof4 patterns (affiliate link) and figured out that the underarm inserts were more suited to the mesh inserts for cooling. This pattern is meant for fleece, so I find it bigger overall than most of their patterns. When I made it in fleece, it was pretty big but fine as a sweatshirt.

I wanted to bring it down to a thin fabric for sunshirts, so I ended up going down several sizes and for the sleeves, I went down one size lower than for the front and back bodice. These sleeves are pretty loose and I do like that, but I didn’t want them quite as floppy as some of my initial versions.

I struggle a lot with the zipper and collar instructions in the Ascent pattern (affiliate link), so I got back to the Pacific Pullover instructions because they are so good and work perfectly. I also use Leah Winkleman’s trick for covering the zipper tape and getting a pretty inside edge on the collar, which I show in the last picture, at the bottom of the page.

Word to the wise: you can use twill tape or ribbon to do the prettiness here, but I’ve done it twice and finally realized that with a stretchy knit, you really should use a knit fabric to do this or it leaves the neckline a little stiff. It’s fine and totally wear able, but you see that the collar kinds of stands out and that’s because the ribbon doesn’t stretch.

Also note that the neckline of the Ascent pattern (affiliate link) is higher than the Pacific so you should use a longer zipper. I used 7.5 which is what I’ve used in many of my Pacifics, but in the Ascent pattern (affiliate link), it’s a little close to my collar bones even at it’s fully open place.

The fabric is Chitosante Interlock from Discovery Fabrics. I’ve used 5 of these colors and for reference, the heathered versions seem to have a little less bulk to them. They are all listed as lightweight but this fuschia one doesn’t feel as thin as some others I have.

The mesh is a power mesh from my sister and is the most durable of all of the mesh I’ve used. I have to confess that some mesh in my previous shirts has been from the bridal section of the fabric store and probably has no business being worn often, with friction u deer the arm!

Overall, while these sunshirts and their fabrics claim to be cooling and sweat wicking, the reality is that if it’s summer, you will feel like you’re creating your own swamp no matter what fabric you use. It is very nice when the wind blows and you feel it through the soaking wetness you’ve created. And the vents give a great illusion of heat release, but I’d have to walk around with my arms fully outstretched 100% of the time to really get any cooling.

Yes, they are cooler than a cotton or poly t shirt.

Yes, they dry faster.

Yes, they are much lighter weight than a t shirt.

But you’re still going to roast.

The Ashley Skort

2023-05-23T20:29:00.004-04:00

Are you looking for a summer staple? Look no further than Ashley Skort by 5outof4patterns (affiliate link). So many choices: mini, knee, tea, maxi lengths, contour, fold over, elastic waistband, maternity, low, mid, or high rise and the shorts can have pockets, or not. The shorts can have no gusset, half a gusset or a full gusset. Oh and the skirt can be woven or knit.

Any idea which one you’ll choose yet? (affiliate link)

For me, a skort is about a functional skirt that can be worn to do lots of active things: sports, chasing toddlers around the park- that sounds creepy- I mean chasing your own toddlers or those within your care- gardening, activities with lots of bend or getting up and down. All things that having shorts underneath would make much easier.

I once had a love affair with running skirts which always had shorts but the affair ended because the shorts never fit right. They usually would slide up my athletic thighs and make me crazy and ruin the joy of looking cute. For me, a skort should be short. The shorts are there in the event I accidentally flash someone because my hemline is questionable but the shorts also have to stay in place and serve a purpose. Ashley skort from 5outof4patterns (affiliate link) does just that,

For this pattern, the front hem is higher than the back, especially at the maxi length. One person said she loved the idea of a cape flying behind her as she ran after her kids, with the freedom to move her legs because of the shorter front 😂. For me, maxi length is not an option. I feel like I’m wrapping myself in fabric all day once it goes below my knees.

I chose the mini length for all of mine. Given my 5’2” frame, it doesn’t look too mini. It’s almost knee length in the back.

As with all 5outof4patterns (affiliate link) , this one comes with “shorten/lengthen here” lines so for this one, I shortened it 2 inches and also just did a lettuce hem. It’s still longer than I’d expect for mini but it’s a very thin knit that grows as the day wears on😂. You know those knits? They feel so nice because they are soft and flowy but have you ever tried to sew them? I equate it to trying to sew water. I used thin fabrics for the shorts, the skirt and the waistband on two of mine and almost lost my mind trying to sewing all and make sure nothing slipped out.

For all of mine, I chose to make shorts. This skirt could be made as just a skirt but check the cross in the front if you’re worried about modesty. Two of my shorts don’t have pockets but these do. Excuse the ridiculous shorts fabric given the fabric for the skirt. In my head, no one will ever see the shorts so who cares if they match? Well, if you’re going to show them in the initial release for the pattern, then really, they should match. Lesson learned.

The shorts have lines for 2, 5 and 7 inch inseams. I chose 5 inch for two of them and did a one inch hem. For the red pair, I went for a 4 inch inseam and one inch hem because they are for the shortened mini.

Let’s talk about the waistband. I did the contour for all of them. There’s the suggestion to use elastic around the top and I highly suggest it. This particular one is a cotton Lycra that grew all day and I chased that waistband everywhere around my abdomen. Even with the elastic, it rode up and down as moved, The other two didn’t do that at all, so I’m blaming the fabric, for sure.

Here’s why I ended up with the cotton Lycra. This skirt is a woven and I’m not a fan of the waistband on a woven being a knit. I can’t explain myself, but it’s a look I really don’t like, for myself. I got this wild idea that somehow, I was going to make a woven waistband work. I even went so far as to cut the woven waistband to fit my hips and then I expected the elastic to pull it all in at my waist.

It fanstasticly did not work. Even though I tried it two different ways and had to remove the waistband both times. At that point, I needed a black knit to be the least conspicuous- white would have really made me upset because it’s a different color AND a different fabric from the skirt- and I grabbed the first thing I found. Not a fan of the waistband on this one so something will have to be done.

For this one, the waistband is the same as the skirt and that’s my favorite option. The shorts on this one are see through purple and therefore not for pictures, but I can tell you I didn’t pay attention to what I was doing and made a gusset out of the red and white polka dots. Right in the crotch of my pale purple shorts. This is one of those things that make me think if I’m in any kind of accident while wearing these, they’re going to be so confused if they have to cut my clothes off in the ER😂

Don’t tell me you’ve never had this thought when you’re wearing something you made that has something that the public would never normally see. There’s always something, isn’t there?

This one ties as my favorite with the one above. Look at that different waistband from the skirt! Again, I can’t explain my rationale but this is fine with me. Something about the red shorts and the red waistband and the red polka dots on the skirt just go together. This red fabric is a French terry that I loved but when I first washed it, the whole piece was ruined because something else in the load ran all over it. I didn’t throw it away and I’ve been slowly using pieces of it that aren’t tainted. This was perfect for the shorts since no one really looks and there is some dark color on the waistband but most likely, no one will see it.

Contrary to most of my pictures here, I will not be wearing any of these with a bare midriff😂. I’m so short in the torso that nothing I own for a top works well to show off the waistband of this skort . If you happened to drive by last week around lunch time 3 days in a row while I was standing in my yard, my shirt tucked up into my bra and smiling, now you know why. I wasn’t just flashing the neighbors, the flora and the fauna- I was completing a pattern test for 5outof4patterns (affiliate link)

The New Hannah Pattern

2023-04-28T08:06:00.007-04:00

I tested the new Hannah pattern from 5outof4 (affiliate link) patterns in the dress length. This pattern has so many options: bikini, crop, full length top, dress and maxi dress. The bikini tops are cute in swim fabric and really have a fun swing to them! This is the first 5outof4 (affiliate link) pattern that I haven’t had to shorten the 3 inches in my torso that I usually do.

This pattern is a lot like the Cecilia on top- close fitting through the bust and then it flows! Like Cecilia, this pattern also comes with the optional bra and suggestions for adding support if you’d like that. You can do wide or narrow straps and fold over elastic (FOE) is also suggested as an option. You can cross your straps at the back like I did, or leave them straight and there’s a suggestion in the directions to add elastic in the straps if you like that support.

My fabric choices were not the best for this pattern. After seeing a lot of other tester makes, it looks like swim fabric and thin, drapey fabric are the best option if you really want that swing. This grey one is Jersey knit and while I love the feel, it’s a little thick and sticks out more than the drape I like in this pattern. The multi colored fabric is dbp, which again is a little thick, but drapes a little better. A knit fabric with some rayon would be really nice for this in a dress or maxi length!

There are instructions for hemming but I left the multi colored unhemmed because I don’t have plans to wear it out in public much. I just don’t love the way the color are set in it. In the summer, I take a shower after supper and then like to put on something comfortable but that I could leave the house in if I were so inclined. This will be perfect for that and also maybe for sleeping in since I like to go to the garden as soon as I get up and this is fairly presentable.

I for the grey one, I just turned up the hem 1/2 inch and didn’t use a stretch stitch because there’s plenty of width in the bottom of the dress, so stretch isn’t really needed there.

I struggle with finding the right support mechanism in the built in bra. Cups always look weird and I’ve tried power mesh layers but I don’t get what I’m looking for. The fit is fine but for my eye, there is an ideal shape I’m looking for and I have yet to find the fabric to do that!

With so many options, including a nursing option in all of the styles, I suspect you will have a closet full of fun new makes from this pattern! Click for 5outof4 (affiliate link) patterns!

80s Bathrobes Scarred Me For Life

2023-02-18T19:49:00.006-05:00

If you were a girl in the 80s, you might remember these robes. My grandmother was a big fan of them and gave them to us several times as we were growing up. I always wanted to like them, but they were polyester, they caught on my dry skin like today’s micro fiber towels do, and they weren’t at all absorbent.

I always wanted to have a robe that I’d put on while I was still damp that would snuggle me in and keep me warm. These robes had an itchy lining on the inside, like a mesh kind of thing, and they were not at all for post shower/bath snuggling. We weren’t really a bathrobe family, so we didn’t go get out our pjs and robes to watch tv before bed or keep them at the foot of the bed to put on when we got up in the night. We didn’t come for breakfast with our robes and slippers.

I also remember trying to sleep in one once and almost burst into flames. And speaking of flames, they were so polyester, that in the dry nights of winter, you could get some pretty amazing static electricity from these. I vividly remember thinking I was going to catch on fire because there was static as I took it off once. I was such an irrational thinker.

Once I went to college, I thought I’d need a robe for dorm showers and for the life of me, I can’t remember if I had one. If I did, surely it wasn’t that quilted, itchy thing, but definitely made of terrycloth, like a normal robe. I know that some time after college, I made myself a really nice terrycloth robe when Joann Fabrics still had it and I remember all of the mess I made sewing it together because it frayed so much. But I also remember still never using it.

I think my idea of the purpose of a robe was wrong. I thought you could just get out of the shower, put on the robe and the terrycloth would suck up all the water but somehow also be dry once it did that. I figured I just always had the wrong kind of robe but even me 100% Cotten terry robe that I made didn’t do what I wanted.

Back in the early 2000s, we put in an outdoor shower. Never once did it occur to me that a robe might finally have a purpose. Until this winter, I never really took showers in the winter but in early spring and late fall, a robe would have been a nice thought while walking back into the house. Instead, I’ve always coming running, literally running if it’s cold, and coming into the house in a fit of rage that it’s so cold.

Out of nowhere last month, the man said he always wanted a robe. When I asked why, he said it would be nice for waking to and from the shower. His birthday was coming up, so I immediately found one for such little money, I figured if he never wore it, it wouldn’t be much of a waste. He’s been wildly in love with it and kept telling me how nice it is to have it on these cold nights when coming back inside. He kept saying I should get one and I kept telling him how I’d never use it.

I’ve been taking showers outside most nights this winter because we have a new setup and it blocks the wind a little better than the old one. When the temps are in the 30s, he runs down cellar and turns off the water so the pipes don’t freeze. He is 100% diehard outdoor shower. I am 65%. Some nights, I just draw the line.

All of this to say, my new robe arrived today and I don’t know what I’ve been doing for the past 2 decades 😂. It’s no fur coat, but it made the walk back into the house something other than a shivering mad dash of swears. I was going to make one, but I couldn’t find what I wanted at Joann fabric and I’d don’t want to futz around with online companies because I wanted a nice thick robe and I wanted it ASAP. I didn’t quite get the steal on this one that I did for the man but I definitely will use this every time I shower outside. I still see no point to it for inside showers and I don’t see myself wearing it while I get ready in the morning but for those cold outdoor shower nights, I’ve hit the jackpot!

Nancy, Nancy Nancy!

2023-01-05T19:14:00.012-05:00

One of the first 5outof4 (affiliate link) patterns I made was the Nancy Raglan as a dress. It had the cowl neck I was looking for and it was my first foray into sewing a sweater knit fabric. It was also my first 5outof4 (affiliate link) pattern that wasn't an athletic wear piece and I was amazed at how many options come with it! Cowl, plain neckband, hoodie- and then you can mash other 5outof4 (affiliate link) necklines with it and the options are even better! A variety of sleeve lengths and a variety of lenthgs for top all the way to dress.

I find raglans to be extremely easy to put together because you don't have to fuss with the sleeve cap or anything else at the shoulder. The neckband or cowl neck (I haven't made this hoodie but I've done hoods on other 5outof4 patterns (affiliate link) and they are easy) are also really easy to do.

A lot of people like to do one fabric for sleeves and one for the main body but that's not really my style, so you'll see all of my examples showing one fabric.

Just before Christmas this year (like the day before school got out) I realized I could use another red shirt to get into the spirit, so I timed myself making this one. From getting the fabric out to cutting the fabric to sewing and hemming, this top took less than an hour to make. I had enough fabric to make a dress but I was worried that this print in a dress might be horrible. And I wanted to wear it year 'round, and I felt like a dress would scream Christmas, whereas a shirt would be more reasonable.

All of the knits I've used have been very supple and stretchy, except for this dress where I used a waffle knit. The bodice of the dress is not the Nancy but the cowl is. The cowl didn't quite do what I was hoping for on this be cause the waffle fabric is a little thick. I should have used more of a funnel neck to get the look I wanted. But, because this is a 5outof4 pattern (affiliate link), the Nancy cowl fit right onto the Easy Tee neckline, showing that these patterns really do work well together!

The only issue I've ever had with this pattern is: because my arms are long and my torso is short, I often confuse the arms vs the body. When I made this blue dress, the arms and the body were exactly the same length so I assumed I was putting the body together. I had already made a couple by that point, but I can't tell you how horrified I was that the "body" was so small. I couldn't imagine how I had put on so much weight in such a short time and it just looked ridiculous. Nothing like my others.

And then I realized I had sewn the sleeves together as the body. I almost did this with the red shirt this year too but it's a shirt and not a dress so I was able to quickly catch myself. See the correctly sew blue dress below.

If you're new to sewing knits and you want a stylish dress or top that is easy and has some options, Nancy is the way to go (affiliate link) . Look at how many versions of this I've made! I could also do a short sleeve but I just haven't gotten around to it. There's also a nursing and maternity option, all in this one pattern!

Be sure to check out the Nancy Raglan and many, many more on the 5outof4 website (affiliate link)!

Easy Tee With A Nancy Cowl

2022-12-06T17:48:00.006-05:00

Do you ever buy a pattern because there’s a specific part of it you want and you never bother to notice the other parts? I do this more than I realized and I’ve discovered it because I’ve made a few things recently that I thought I was going to have to mash patterns together or finagle something and then after asking around, it turns out some of the patterns I have already do this! This is exactly the case with my Halifax Hoodie/Brunswick mash last month.

I’ve been itching to make a winter dress from some thermal fabric but I wanted a turtleneck/cowl type of neck. My first outrageous idea was going to use 3 patterns, from 3 completely different designers. It was going to be an undertaking but I thought it needed to happen. I was going to use the cowl from Nancy Raglan from 5outof4 patterns (affiliate link) and stick it on a t-shirt neckline from someone else, with a dress length from someone else.

Somewhere along the way, I looked at the Easy Tee (affiliate link) and realized- there’s a dress already drawn out! I completely forgot about the top, tunic and dress lengths of that pattern because when I made it the first time, I only cared about the t-shirt. This took 2 patterns I was going to use and made them one. And I was happy to see that the dress was draw with a wider A line than the other one I was going to use, so that was even better!

The Easy Tee (affiliate link) has a hood, but a hood isn’t where I was going for what I had in mind. I remember seeing a dress once that had a great turtleneck that was full like a cowl (not skinny right to the neck) but didn’t dip down like a cowl. Do you think I can find anything like that now, even with the amazingness that is a google search?

Side note. I made a Halifax Hoodie from Hey June once in a quilted fabric that was amazing until I did the cowl and it was such a thick fabric, it was like a giant neck brace. I couldn’t make it dip, there was no folding or fluffing, it was just inches of a cone standing up around my neck. I thought it would be so pretty and holiday like with the off white and gold. I don’t even want to talk about what I did to try to cut it down a little and wrestle it into submission. It has moved along to an unsuspecting person through the donation box.

Back to the matter at hand. I was slightly afraid that this thermal fabric might end up recreating the cone of despair just mentioned. I have a Jalie pattern with a turtleneck that I didn’t even look at because I know is a close fitting neck. The Nancy cowl (affiliate link) seemed a little floppy for the fabric but time was marching on and I didn’t want to keep looking for a neck I might have just made up in my head. I figured it all else failed, I’d have yet another cowl in my lineup. I like them, they are fine, I just don’t want to be that weirdo who only has one style all winter.

One thing I like about knits is how easy it is to mold them into what you want. I knew if the Nancy (affiliate link) didn’t quite fit the top of the Easy Tee neckline, I could wiggle them enough to get them to line up. I could have measured the neckline and the cowl bottom but alas, I did not.

One of the things I do not like about knits is how stretchy they can be and can easily get out of control. This waffle/thermal fabric is nice but my serger made it grown by leaps and bounds, even when I adjusted the differential. I ended up sewing it all on my regular machine with the walking foot, but not before I had managed to stretch the neckline of the tee from crew neck to practically boat neck. Just handling the fabric was like adding water to a dried sponge. It just kept growing. The bottom of the cowl is a lot wider than it should have been due to the super stretched neckline.

I foolishly thought topstitching the cowl was going to do something. I don’t even know what I thought it would do. Keep things under control, I guess. What it ended up doing was stretching and rippling it so much that even once I had removed the topstitching (black thread on black thermal- please sends your words of comfort) and washed it and dried it, the ripples are forever.

The neckline sort of does what I envisioned. I played with it as I wore it and got it to a state that I like. It’s not quite as cowl-like as the pattern intends but also a little more cowl-like than my imagination had hoped. If I made another, I think if I brought the top of the cowl piece in a little bit, it would allow it to old a little closer to the neck. The line drawing has it tipped out a little at the top which is what allows the finished cowl to do that dip. These are the kinds of things I can only understand by doing it and seeing the result. I tried to imagine how that shape played out in the finished cowl but only now do I understand. I have a very hard time envisioning 3D without holding it in my hand.

The dress itself is super easy. Just a front and back and the sleeves. The sleeves are not side specific so again, really each because you don’t have to keep track of which one goes where. I ended up putting cuffs on my sleeves because with the tendency for this fabric to grow, I knew that even hemmed, these sleeves would end up a mile wide by the end of the day. The cuffs slow that down a little bit. I also like a longer sleeve because nothing bothers me more than a sleeve that is too short as I reach my hands forward. I’d rather have a little extra fabric than not enough.

For the hem, I used a hem tape before topstitching. I usually don’t like a hem tape, but I couldn’t imagine ironing and pinning a good hem without it being 6 miles long. That was definitely the best solution because it lays exactly as I wanted it to.

The Easy Tee (affiliate link) has a great cut that’s flattering but not too loose or too tight. I’ve made a couple of t-shirts with the short sleeve option but this was the first long sleeve or dress that I made. I would try another turtleneck or cowl neck on this pattern because if I had fabric that behaved better, I think I could achieve the look I originally started out wanting.

This Easy Tee and Nancy mashup were my ambassador make for 5outof4 patterns for this month. Get your copy of each pattern here (affiliate link)!